Ask Ask Roxie Roxie we move on. First thing, they want to pet the dog. And my first
Words of Advice from an ‘09toPet question them is: 'Do you have a pet?' and they'll bring out
their phone. We just have a conversation!” Bella and Bonnie are a volunteer team with Pups n' Planes, where “comfort” dogs and their owners offer distressed travelers a little sugar. “People are waiting, their flight has been canceled, or they may have a four-hour wait, and they are upset.” “One time, two little girls stopped to pet the dog, and I looked up, and the mother was crying. Her husband was being deployed. I spent probably a half-hour with them, and the dad thanked me so many times because it got them thinking about other things,” Bonnie says. Airport staffers implemented the idea after learning how well it worked at the Los Angeles International Airport. Pups n' Planes has been reducing blood pressure and turning frowns upside down for six years. “In the car, she knows that we are almost at the airport. She gets so excited! Her job is to make people smile. She does that job.” And if you saw Bella, you would smile, too. The girl team also spends time at the airport USO, softening the loneliness and longing of our troops, so familiar to military life. While Bella offers kisses, Canine Explosive Detection Supervisor Sgt. Andres Lopez, and his police dog Keyno, provide safety and security. “We are there to make sure that the traveling public is safe, the dog makes that any threats associated with aviation there aren’t real threats,” says the airport K9 police officer. Lopez and Keyno “nose around," sniffing out threats that could come from a parked car, a suitcase, or a person. “Dogs are about as mobile as you can get,” says Lopez. He means the nose is mobile.
ODD COUPLES! Bella is a volunteer with Pups n' Planes, the airport greeting committee. She wears her little pink coat, cheering up tired travelers at the San Antonio International Airport.
Why a dog might befriend a tortoise
Workin' for a Living!
BY BERIT MASON
Traditionally, dogs chased cats, and cats hated dogs. Dogs with Jobs
No way were the two going to cuddle up together for a nice BY BERIT MASON afternoon nap! But now, odd couples are all over the internet, dogs and cats napping, dogs and turtles playing football, deer and dogs The San AntonioinInternational Airport is HUGE! romping together the backyard. It recently broke a record, flying some 15,000 So, what gives with all of this newfound love?people A DAY, forThe a total of 10.36 million passengers in Hospital, 2019. owner of Broadway Oaks Animal Dr. Pat Passengers most certainly frequent the airport, but pups do too. Richardson, says that as more people adopt animals, more Meet Bella. pets live under one roof, so they have to get along. Bella is a petite dog with light, wavy hair, offering everyone “I just had a client come in with a puppy that they she meets the sweetest smile. Several hours a week, Bella and introduced to their cat who had previously been introduced owner Bonnie Gioiello roam the airport, searching out the tired, to a dachshund, and they didn’t get along at all. But now this the weary, and the bored. puppy has look come andsmile, won’tthey leave catlover. alone. Thedon't, cat “If they upinand arethat a dog If they has reconciled this and has decided that this is the way it’s going to be.” 34 APRIL 20202021 | 78209magazine.com 40 AUGUST | 78209magazine.com
These new pets pairings are because people are also adopting parrots or turtles or mice! Yikes! People are fostering animals, and they are rescuing and caring for injured wildlife, so many more kinds of animals are joining families. “I had a guy that brought in a 120-pound tortoise, and it was sick and had to stay in the hospital for a long time. He said that every cat and dog in his house (they had quite a menagerie) was depressed until the tortoise came back,” says Richardson. Awwww! No one ever intended for an iguana to be best friends Airport therapy dogs help soothe people who may be upset because of a in this practice all offlight. the time, and it with a dog, but I see longitwait, delayed or cancelled is amazing.” “Cross-species relationships” are well-documented.
